The NBA is headed to Peacock this October, and with it a range of new features making the viewing experience distinct from watching basketball on cable and a flood of other sports-focused packages. For starters, Peacock is adding an optional “performance view” overlay that will show you player names and a live shot chart that can display percentages for different types of shots.
Peacock is “going to be refining this throughout the season,” as well as testing and adding more types of data in the future, John Jelley, Peacock’s senior vice president of product, said during a press briefing. The service also plans to make live games more prominent by showing them as soon as you open the app, cuing up at-a-glance information, like who’s scoring the most points.
Additionally, Peacock is adding a ScoreCard feature on TV and mobile, which it describes as “bingo meets fantasy.” It will let you choose a card with a series of predictions, such as LeBron James scoring over 25 points or Luka Dončić getting three assists. Throughout the game, you’ll receive alerts when your prediction pans out, allowing you to earn points within the service, compete with other viewers, and potentially land on a leaderboard.
Peacock, which started experimenting with short-form videos on mobile earlier this year, will add clips of key NBA plays to a carousel of vertical videos you can scroll through. On TV, you’ll be able to scroll beneath the video player to catch up on highlights you might’ve missed, a feature Peacock first added for Premier League games in 2022. The streaming service also plans on adding a new “Courtside Live” feature later in the season, which will offer views from alternate angles on the court.
Disclosure: Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, is also an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.
